High school notebook: Unified Sports going strong in second year

DOVER — When asked what was her favorite aspect of playing basketball with the Dover High School Special Olympics Unified Sports team, sophomore forward Alissa Jandebeur didn't hesitate.

“Just running down the court and taking some shots, and stealing the ball away from people,” said Jandebeur, who also runs track and field. She said that she doesn't have any steals yet, however.

“But I will, because the season's not over yet,” she said.

It's a big week for the Dover-Spaulding rivalry, and the Special Olympics Unified Sports basketball competition got things started in grand style on Wednesday afternoon at Ollie Adams Gym, with Spaulding earning a 34-30 win.

The aim of Unified Sports is to join people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. The initiative kicked off in the fall of 2011 with soccer and now includes a number of sports that compete for officially sanctioned NHIAA tournament titles.

“The main point of it all is to interact with the athletes,” said Dover junior Jordan Goss, a unified partner. “You don't really know what it's like until you actually do it.”

Goss is a veteran of Unified Sports who joined with his older brother, Jared.

“Once we got into it, it just clicked,” Jordan Goss said. “It's just something I wanted to do.”

Spaulding coach Dan Curran said he enjoys seeing new faces every year.

“It's just like coaching high school soccer,” Curran said. “You get to work with a whole new group of athletes every year. Just like in the regular high school season, you have those moments that make you want to come back the next season.”

Spaulding senior Andrew Randt is new to the sport of basketball this season and was happy to participate in the Red Raider-Green Wave rivalry for the first time on the court.

“It felt good,” Randt said. “We won our first game. I made lots of baskets today. Layups and everything.”

Spaulding unified partner Dylan Cunningham, a freshman, said he joined Unified Sports in order to serve his fellow student.

“I like helping the kids,” Cunningham said. “It felt good beating Dover with them today. It got them all excited. They have a lot of fun.”

Kevin Boyle teaches special education at Spaulding and coaches football at Dover and helped organize a joint fundraiser on Feb. 21 in the Spaulding High School gym. The event will include a wheelchair basketball game at 4 p.m. between the Dover and Spaulding faculty, followed by the Unified basketball game between the two schools at 5:30 p.m.

“The kids come out and put on a show and show all the hard work that they've done,” Boyle said. “The whole thing is completely run by our post-graduate program. They put it all together. It gives the kids a great experience.”

The event is to generate awareness about the Unified sports programs at both schools. Proceeds will be split between Spaulding and Dover.

Although the Spaulding-Dover rivalry is competitive in every sport, if Wednesday's event was any indication, there should be nothing but good vibes all around when the two Unified basketball teams meet again on Feb. 21.

The Dover Arena was quiet last Monday on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Well, maybe not quiet, but one thing was missing — the annual Dover-St. Thomas rivalry boys hockey game, normally played on the holiday afternoon.

Dover athletic director Peter Wotton said a mutual decision was made before the beginning of the school year to end all inter-division games between the two schools, including baseball, basketball, soccer and softball.

“It became difficult to do the scheduling between Division I schools and Division II schools,” Wotton said. “Some of the crossover games were a challenge to get in. It seemed like maybe the games had run their course. There's no bad blood, which is good. It was a mutual agreement.”

It's a somewhat complicated matter, as Dover is D-I in most sports and St. Thomas is D-II. In boys hockey, it's reversed. Therefore, by playing a D-II school, St. Thomas had more to lose, standing-wise, in hockey while the Green Wave had more at risk in the other sports.

What basically spelled the end of the hockey rivalry was this — in previous years, the game was an exhibition and did not count in the standings. This year, it would have, leading to the decision to end the rivalry in all sports where the two schools are in different divisions.

“All the games started to count and that's a challenge,” Wotton said. “St. Thomas is as good as a lot of Division I schools, so (competition) wasn't the case.”

Green Wave hockey coach Steve Riker said he understood the decision to end the rivalry, but will miss playing St. Thomas once a year.

“It's a good day for hockey in Dover,” Riker said. “It's a well-attended event. I wasn't attached to it by any means, but for traditions sake, I'd like to see it keep going.”

Saints coach Andrew Leach said the rivalry had its pros and cons.

“Last year it got a little chippy, Leach said. “Kids just want to win. But for the fact that they pack the place, it was good for us. We usually don't play in front of a crowd. If we could keep it so there's no real repercussions, or anything like that, I'd love to keep it going.”

On a side note, the two schools will continue to play each other in lacrosse, as both are in Division II in both boys and girls and are naturally on each other's regular-season schedule.

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BIG PERFORMANCES: Chris Laurion scored 24 points and Andrew Langdon added 17 on Wednesday night to lead the Coe-Brown boys basketball team to a big 69-67 overtime win over Bishop Brady in D-II ... Speaking of overtime, Dakota Pidgeon gave St. Thomas a big 4-3 D-I overtime win at Manchester Memorial on Wednesday ... Somersworth's Rachel Hill scored 49 points in a stretch of just over 24 hours, scoring 24 in a 65-42 win at Farmington on Tuesday and 25 in a 62-27 home win over Sanborn on Wednesday. The Hilltoppers are 10-3 ... The Spaulding High School girls basketball team has a two-game winning streak going, beating Concord 39-25 on Tuesday night in D-I. The Red Raiders host rival Dover on Friday ... The Dover boys basketball team has won four straight following a 71-53 win at Manchester West on Tuesday. Billy Carroll scored 18 points, Phil Boyatsis added 17 and Josh Cote scored 10.